Wikipedia:WikiProject Academic Journals/Journals cited by Wikipedia/Questionable1 - Wikipedia


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This is The Wikipedia CiteWatch, a bot-compiled listing of potentially cargo cult, conspiracist, denialist, fake, junk, not even wrong, obsolete, predatory, pseudoscientific, quack, or otherwise unreliable publications cited by Wikipedia through the |journal= parameter of citation templates (see this Signpost article for details). It is based on several lists of unreliable or questionable publications (such as those compiled by Jeffrey Beall, the University Grants Commission, Quackwatch, or Wikipedia editors) and currently reflects the state of Wikipedia as of 1 September 2024. See Q9 in the FAQ for the update schedule.

This list is a starting point to detect unreliable sources which are cited by Wikipedia, but it does not answer whether it is appropriate to cite them. Due to the somewhat arbitrary nature of what exactly constitutes an unreliable source, as well as imperfect matching algorithms, the list may feature publications and publishers which...

  1. are flat-out promoting pseudo/junk scholarship or quackery
  2. are flat-out predatory/vanity venues, with sham peer-review processes
  3. were once-reliable, but have since been acquired by predatory publishers
  4. were once-unreliable, but no longer engage in problematic practices
  5. reflect the sources' good but imperfect judgment of what is unreliable
  6. are problematic in some areas (e.g. pseudoscience), but reliable in others (e.g. news)
  7. are problematic in some other way (e.g. circular references, or deprecated sources)
  8. are problematic but used in an acceptable manner (e.g. primary sources about frauds)
  9. are misclassified because of a spelling variation (red links especially)
  10. are misclassified because of false positives, miscategorization, or flawed bot logic
  11. are reliable, but share names with imposter publications and publishers
  12. are about pseudoscholarship as a topic, rather than being pseudoscholarly themselves

While many, if not most, publications and publishers on this list have some questionable aspects to their publishing practices, these can still be reliable (or be otherwise acceptable) in limited circumstances. The CiteWatch cannot determine the full context in which a source is used, therefore use common sense and judgement before removing a citation from an article (see Q8 in the FAQ). When in doubt, discuss things on the article's talk page or at the reliable sources noticeboard – especially before a mass purge of a source. The Unreliable/Predatory Source Detector user script may also interest you.

Additions and removals from the listing – including false positives – can be discussed at WT:CITEWATCH. False positives can also be directly handled at WP:JCW/EXCLUDE.

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Rank Target/Group Entries (Citations, Articles) Total Citations Distinct Articles ⁠Citations/article⁠
1 MDPI | {{doi|10.1989}} · {{doi|10.20944}} · {{doi|10.32545}} · {{doi|10.3390}} · {{doi|10.35995}}
[Beall's publisher list / update]
MDPI is very much hit-and-miss. MDPI on Beall's original list in 2014, but was removed in 2015. The updated list says "Some of their journals have a very poor peer-review; some are fine." Social Sciences could be multiple other journals. Evaluate on a case by case basis (see Q8 in the FAQ).
All 365 MDPI-related entries
19924 14436 1.380
2 Frontiers Media | {{doi|10.3389}} · {{doi|10.4175}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Very much hit-and-miss. See note on Beall's list. Will accept almost anything (80-90% of submissions), and has sacked editors for being too selective. Many journals have impact factors and are listed on DOAJ, and Frontiers Media remains part of COPE and OASPA. Evaluate on a case by case basis (see Q8 in the FAQ).
All 232 Frontiers Media-related entries
13888 9841 1.411
3 Hijacked journal
[Beall's hijacked list · Beall's hijacked list / update · Beall's journal list · Bohannon's list of hijacked journals]
Hijacked journals are legitimate academic journals with imposters pretending to be the legitimate publication. These citations are likely not problematic, but it is good to check that the real journal is being cited.
All 202 Hijacked journal-related entries
6334 5142 1.232
4 Hindawi (publisher) | {{doi|10.1100}} · {{doi|10.1155}} · {{doi|10.3814}} · {{doi|10.4061}} · {{doi|10.5402}} · {{doi|10.6064}} · {{doi|10.7167}} · {{doi|10.7217}}
[Beall's publisher list*]
Listed on Beall's list in 2010, but later removed as a 'borderline case'. In 2023, Hindawi retracted several thousands of articles from paper mills. Wiley estimates that 10-13% of all Hindawi papers are affected, though this may vary from journal to journal. Evaluate on a case by case basis (see Q8 in the FAQ).
All 566 Hindawi (publisher)-related entries
6067 5203 1.166
5 Medknow Publications | {{doi|10.4103}} · {{doi|10.6219}}
[Beall's publisher list* · Beall's journal list / update]
Listed on Beall's list in 2011, but removed in 2012. Several of its journal are listed on the updated list, however.
All 500 Medknow Publications-related entries
5638 4260 1.323
6 Bentham Science Publishers | {{doi|10.2174}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Bentham Open is listed, although Bentham Science Publishers is not.
All 295 Bentham Science Publishers-related entries
3641 2898 1.256
7 Dove Medical Press | {{doi|10.2147}}
[Beall's journal list / update]
Formerly on Beall's original list as 'Dove Press', but several journals are listed on the updated list.
All 148 Dove Medical Press-related entries
2290 1885 1.215
8 Alternative medicine
[Unreliable fields]
All 170 Alternative medicine-related entries
2207 1491 1.480
9 Case report
[Unreliable fields]
Case reports may be perfectly fine citations, however they will usually fail WP:MEDRS as individual cases are considered anecdotal evidence.
All 249 Case report-related entries
1745 1435 1.216
10 Baishideng Publishing Group | {{doi|10.11569}} · {{doi|10.12998}} · {{doi|10.13105}} · {{doi|10.35711}} · {{doi|10.35712}} · {{doi|10.35713}} · {{doi|10.37126}} · {{doi|10.3748}} · {{doi|10.4239}} · {{doi|10.4240}} · {{doi|10.4251}} · {{doi|10.4252}} · {{doi|10.4253}} · {{doi|10.4254}} · {{doi|10.4291}} · {{doi|10.4292}} · {{doi|10.4329}} · {{doi|10.4330}} · {{doi|10.4331}} · {{doi|10.5306}} · {{doi|10.5312}} · {{doi|10.5313}} · {{doi|10.5314}} · {{doi|10.5315}} · {{doi|10.5316}} · {{doi|10.5317}} · {{doi|10.5318}} · {{doi|10.5319}} · {{doi|10.5320}} · {{doi|10.5321}} · {{doi|10.5409}} · {{doi|10.5410}} · {{doi|10.5411}} · {{doi|10.5412}} · {{doi|10.5492}} · {{doi|10.5493}} · {{doi|10.5494}} · {{doi|10.5495}} · {{doi|10.5496}} · {{doi|10.5497}} · {{doi|10.5498}} · {{doi|10.5499}} · {{doi|10.5500}} · {{doi|10.5501}} · {{doi|10.5527}} · {{doi|10.5528}} · {{doi|10.5662}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 50 Baishideng Publishing Group-related entries
1312 981 1.337
11 Parapsychology
[Unreliable fields]
Several skeptical publications setting out to debunk rather than promote nonsensical claims may be included here.
All 34 Parapsychology-related entries
1297 860 1.508
12 Pseudo-scholarship
[Unreliable fields]
All 97 Pseudo-scholarship-related entries
1104 917 1.204
13 Current Science
[Beall's journal list / update] 		1065 896 1.189
14 Tabloid journalism
[Unreliable fields]
All 31 Tabloid journalism-related entries
1053 555 1.897
15 Conspiracy theory
[Unreliable fields]
All 49 Conspiracy theory-related entries
881 776 1.135
16 AME Publishing Company | {{doi|10.21037}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 58 AME Publishing Company-related entries
639 521 1.226
17 Impact Journals (New York State, USA) | {{doi|10.18632}}
[Beall's publisher list] 		601 488 1.232
18 ResearchGate | {{doi|10.13140}}
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#ResearchGate.
All 166 ResearchGate-related entries
574 523 1.098
19 Cureus | {{doi|10.7759}}
[—]
Uses crowd-sourced "post-publication peer-review". 		557 495 1.125
20 Rolling Stone
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Rolling Stone; good for culture news reporting; unreliable for politically/societally sensitive reporting; Culture Council articles unreliable. 		507 468 1.083
21 Forbes
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Forbes.com contributors, staff is reliable, contributors are not. 		503 445 1.130
22 Propaganda
[Unreliable fields]
All 118 Propaganda-related entries
480 398 1.206
23 F1000 (publisher) | {{doi|10.12688}} · {{doi|10.12703}} · {{doi|10.3410}} · {{doi|10.4089}} · {{doi|10.7490}}
[See [1]]
All 20 F1000 (publisher)-related entries
471 400 1.177
24 Oncotarget
[Beall's journal list] 		418 364 1.148
25 Race and intelligence controversy
[Unreliable fields] 		400 188 2.128
26 Blog hosting services
[WP:SPSLIST]
See WP:BLOGS.
All 184 Blog hosting services-related entries
365 321 1.137
27 Frontiers in Bioscience | {{doi|10.2741}}
[Beall's publisher list] 		356 335 1.063
28 Daily Star (United Kingdom)
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Daily Star. 		280 154 1.818
29 Chiropractic
[Unreliable fields]
All 23 Chiropractic-related entries
280 137 2.044
30 Unpublished
[—]
May simply be in need of being updated to the published version. Otherwise, these probably fail WP:V.
All 165 Unpublished-related entries
268 239 1.121
31 Medwell Journals | {{doi|10.3923}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Veterinary Research is most likely the one published by BioMed Central, rather than Medwell. Social Sciences could be multiple other journals.
All 9 Medwell Journals-related entries
244 209 1.167
32 Quadrant (magazine)
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Quadrant. 		224 149 1.503
33 HuffPost
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#HuffPost contributors, staff is debatable, contributors/editorial partners are not reliable.
All 14 HuffPost-related entries
220 207 1.063
34 Canadian Center of Science and Education | {{doi|10.5539}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 30 Canadian Center of Science and Education-related entries
213 201 1.060
35 e-Century Publishing Corporation
[Beall's publisher list]
All 19 e-Century Publishing Corporation-related entries
209 196 1.066
36 Journal of Management
[Lying about DOAJ]
Not the Southern Management Association journal 		207 164 1.262
37 Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks
[WP:CIRCULAR / WP:MIRROR]
Many entries are listed for mirroring small excerpts only.
All 21 Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks-related entries
199 186 1.070
38 Aging (journal)
[Beall's journal list] 		166 126 1.317
39 Medical Hypotheses
[See [2]]
Purposefully not peer-reviewed. 		159 129 1.233
40 Science Publishing Group | {{doi|10.11648}}
[Beall's publisher list · Beall's publisher list / update]
Social Sciences could be multiple other journals. Several of SPG journals are named either identically or are very similar to other publications, e.g. International Journal of Data Science and Analysis vs International Journal of Data Science and Analytics and may thus have similar ISO 4 abbreviations. It was founded in 2012, so references prior to 2012 are unlikely to be of this publisher.
All 11 Science Publishing Group-related entries
151 138 1.094
41 Psychology Today
[Quackwatch's list] 		151 131 1.153
42 Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
[Quackwatch's list] 		138 115 1.200
43 Superseded theories in science
[Unreliable fields]
All 25 Superseded theories in science-related entries
128 113 1.133
44 Marquis Who's Who
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Marquis Who's Who.
All 17 Marquis Who's Who-related entries
125 110 1.136
45 OMICS Publishing Group | {{doi|10.11131}} · {{doi|10.12715}} · {{doi|10.14303}} · {{doi|10.15412}} · {{doi|10.21767}} · {{doi|10.24105}} · {{doi|10.36648}} · {{doi|10.37532}} · {{doi|10.4066}} · {{doi|10.4172}} · {{doi|10.47128}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Vegetos is published by Springer Nature since 2019.
All 19 OMICS Publishing Group-related entries
124 114 1.088
46 Symbiosis (publisher) | {{doi|10.15226}}
[Beall's publisher list] 		117 108 1.083
47 Genetics and Molecular Research | {{doi|10.4238}}
[Beall's journal list] 		116 105 1.105
48 Diva Enterprises | {{doi|10.5958}}
[UGC]
Several of their journal fail UGC criteria. Those that pass are listed here. Those from listed as UGC Group 1 are probably fine. UGC Group II could be fine, depending on the database. Those without UGC recognition are very likely not fine. Those unmentioned are definitely not fine.
All 44 Diva Enterprises-related entries
102 95 1.074
49 American Scientific Publishers | {{doi|10.1166}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 22 American Scientific Publishers-related entries
102 90 1.133
50 International Journal of Nanomedicine
[Beall's journal list / update] 		100 71 1.408
51 Munis Entomology & Zoology
[Beall's journal list] 		97 84 1.155
52 Spectrum (magazine)
[Quackwatch's list] 		97 83 1.169
53 Project Innovation
[Beall's publisher list]
These journals were acquired by Project Innovations at some point, but were well-established before that. Project Innovations also switched owners at several points, the most recent being 2004. Unclear when problems with publisher started. 		90 84 1.071
54 Creationism
[Unreliable fields]
All 17 Creationism-related entries
80 51 1.569
55 Daily Express
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Daily Express. 		74 66 1.121
56 Pharmacognosy Reviews
[Beall's journal list / update] 		61 56 1.089
57 Pulsus Group | {{doi|10.19144}} · {{doi|10.21282}} · {{doi|10.4066}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Purchased by OMICS Publishing Group in 2016. The Journal of Agriculture is likely an older, non-Pulsus journal.
All 17 Pulsus Group-related entries
59 58 1.017
58 Alternative Medicine Review
[Quackwatch's list] 		57 52 1.096
59 African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines
[Beall's journal list] 		52 51 1.020
60 IGI Global | {{doi|10.4018}}
[[3] · [4]]
IGI Global is mostly criticized for it's book-publishing practices. Criticism is mostly silent on its journals, several of which have impact factors.
All 39 IGI Global-related entries
51 51 1.000
61 Scientific Research Publishing | {{doi|10.4236}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Chinese Medicine likely refers to the BioMed Central journal. Comput. Chem. likely refers to Computer & Chemistry.
All 10 Scientific Research Publishing-related entries
50 42 1.190
62 Nucleus
[Lying about DOAJ]
Make sure it's ISSN 1982-2278, there are many other publications with the same/similar name. 		49 43 1.140
63 Homeopathy
[Unreliable fields]
All 8 Homeopathy-related entries
49 27 1.815
64 National Association of Scholars | {{doi|10.51845}}
[Beall's publisher list] 		41 38 1.079
65 Anti-vaccine movement
[Unreliable fields]
See also WP:JCW/PATTERNS#CAM.
All 8 Anti-vaccine movement-related entries
41 32 1.281
66 Bioinformation | {{doi|10.6026}}
[Beall's journal list] 		40 38 1.053
67 International Journal of Computer Applications
[Lying about DOAJ · Beall's publisher list] 		39 38 1.026
68 Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
[Quackwatch's list] 		39 27 1.444
69 Genes & Cancer
[Beall's journal list] 		37 32 1.156
70 Alchemy
[Unreliable fields]
All 9 Alchemy-related entries
35 32 1.094
71 International Institute for Science, Technology and Education | {{doi|10.7176}}
[Beall's publisher list]
Search for iiste.org 		35 28 1.250
72 Genocide denial
[Unreliable fields] 		35 14 2.500
73 Journal of Environmental Biology
[Beall's journal list] 		34 32 1.062
74 Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies
[Beall's journal list] 		34 31 1.097
75 Vegetarian Times
[Quackwatch's list] 		34 31 1.097
76 Journal of Physical Therapy Science
[Beall's journal list] 		34 25 1.360
77 Journal of Psychology and Theology
[Beall's journal list] 		33 27 1.222
78 Bridges (magazine)
[Quackwatch's list] 		33 26 1.269
79 Amphibian & Reptile Conservation
[Beall's journal list / update] 		32 31 1.032
80 Who's Who (UK)
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Who's Who (UK). 		32 31 1.032
81 Science Publications | {{doi|10.3844}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 10 Science Publications-related entries
31 31 1.000
82 Authorea | {{doi|10.15200}} · {{doi|10.22541}}
[—]
Preprints 		31 26 1.192
83 African Research Review
[Beall's publisher list] 		30 27 1.111
84 Alternative & Complementary Therapies
[Quackwatch's list] 		28 28 1.000
85 Astrology
[Unreliable fields]
All 8 Astrology-related entries
27 22 1.227
86 HIV/AIDS denialism
[Unreliable fields] 		27 19 1.421
87 InTech Open Access Publisher | {{doi|10.5772}}
[Beall's publisher list]
All 24 InTech Open Access Publisher-related entries
26 25 1.040
88 Interdisciplinary Toxicology
[Beall's journal list] 		25 24 1.042
89 Serials Publications
[Beall's publisher list]
Man in India dates from well before Serials Publications came about. Date of acquisition unclear. 		25 23 1.087
90 International Business Times
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#International Business Times. 		25 22 1.136
91 International Journal of Mathematics
[Lying about DOAJ]
Refers to the IAEME journal, not the World Scientific one 		25 22 1.136
92 Journal of Cosmology | {{doi|10.37720}}
[Beall's journal list] 		25 16 1.562
93 FamilySearch
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#FamilySearch. 		25 14 1.786
94 European Journal of Social Sciences
[Beall's journal list]
Possibly hijacked. The journal published by Librairie Droz, hosted on Open Edition is legitimate. The one published by Social Sciences Research Platform is listed by Beall. 		24 23 1.043
95 Medium (website)
[WP:RSP § Generally unreliable]
See WP:RSP#Medium. 		24 23 1.043
96 North American Journal of Medical Sciences | {{doi|10.4297}}
[Beall's journal list / update] 		23 21 1.095
97 International Journal of Pediatrics
[Beall's journal list] 		23 19 1.211
98 Wikipedia
[WP:CIRCULAR / WP:MIRROR]
See WP:RSP#Wikipedia. 		23 19 1.211
99 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
[Beall's journal list · Quackwatch's list] 		23 16 1.438
100 Pharmacognosy Magazine
[Beall's journal list / update] 		22 22 1.000
Legend
  • Title (bold link) : page existed at time of database dump
  • Title (bold underlined link) : page existed, as a disambiguation page, at time of database dump
  • Title (italicized link) : page existed, as a redirect, at time of database dump
  • Title (italicized underlined link) : page existed, as a redirect to a disambiguation page, at time of database dump
  • Title (regular blue link) page did not exist at time of database dump
  • Title (non-link) : title contains invalid characters for a Wikipedia page title
  • Title (redlink): A red link means the article does not currently exist. This is either because the corresponding article did not exist at the time of the dump (regular red link), or has since been deleted (red link with formatting).
  • In an entry like The Foobar Journal (13 in 6), the "13 in 6" means that the entry was found 13 times in 6 article. When an entry is found in 5 or fewer articles, they will be listed for convenience.
Date

Compilation last updated on 21 September 2024. The Wikipedia CiteWatch results are based on the database dump of 1 September 2024, using this configuration, with these exclusions.